Doubt

A device designed to repair the leaky mitral value of heart patients too sick for open-heart surgery has gotten a skeptical review from Food and Drug Administration experts. The report , which concluded the makers of the MitraClip Clip Delivery System have not yet answered "major questions of safety and effectiveness" concerning the device, was posted to the FDA website on Monday. An FDA advisory panel is set to meet on Wednesday to consider whether to recommend approval of the first-of-its-kind gadget for the U.S. market.

Kobe Bryant is doubtful for Sunday's game against Sacramento, the Lakers said, and it was only the first half of an unsettling injury report. Pau Gasol experienced soreness in his right foot while playing two-on-two at the team training facility Saturday. The cause and extent of the soreness are unclear, but Gasol will see foot specialist Kenneth Jung on Sunday. Gasol had targeted Monday's game in Phoenix as his return date from a tear inside the bottom of the foot, though it looked less possible after Saturday's development.

Kobe Bryant is doubtful for Sunday's game against Sacramento, the Lakers said, and it was only the first half of an unsettling injury report. Pau Gasol experienced soreness in his right foot while playing a two-on-two game at the team's training facility Saturday. He will see foot specialist Kenneth Jung on Sunday. The cause and extent of the soreness were unclear. Gasol had targeted Monday's game against Phoenix as a return date from a tear inside the bottom of the foot, though it looked less possible after Saturday's news.

For decades, Long Beach hotel workers fought for better wages. But their efforts to start unions mostly fizzled. So last year, union backers tried something new: a ballot measure. Voters swiftly gave them what years of picket lines and union-card drives had failed to secure - a $13-per-hour minimum wage for hundreds of Long Beach hotel workers. A similar shift happened in San Jose, where voters in November awarded workers a higher minimum wage not just in hotels, but citywide.

U.S. corporate executives believe American workers lack crucial skills for success. More than half of executives belief their underlings are "average at best" in areas such as creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication, according to a survey from the American Management Assn. And the number of managers who rate their workers "below average" rose in all four categories: 9.8% believe their employees lack critical thinking skills (up from 6.2% in 2010), 19.7% in creativity (up from 15.6%)

A Los Angeles sales tax hike being promoted as vital to preserving public safety and helping end years of budget deficits is drawing support from a narrow majority of likely voters, according to a new USC Price/L.A. Times poll. Fifty-three percent of surveyed voters said they definitely or probably would vote for Proposition A, which is on Tuesday's ballot and would raise $200 million a year by boosting the city's sales tax rate by half a cent to 9.5%, one of the highest in the state.

UCLA VS. ARIZONA STATE When: 8:30 p.m. Where: Pauley Pavilion. On the air: TV: Pac-12 Networks. Radio: 570. Records: UCLA 20-7, 10-4 Pac-12; Sun Devils 20-8, 9-6. Update: A key moment for both teams. Each would like to improve their resume for an NCAA tournament at-large berth. A UCLA victory will all but guarantee the Bruins get a first-round bye in the Pac-12 tournament, where playing three games in three days is far more appealing than playing four in four.

KYAN KHINN SU, Myanmar - No matter what anyone else says, antique-aircraft buff David Cundall remains adamant about finding valuable World War II Spitfires buried somewhere in Myanmar. The 63-year-old English farmer and aviation fan told reporters in Yangon this week that he would continue his search even though his main sponsor had backed out. Cundall has already led a 21-member team digging and surveying for several weeks this year near Yangon's international airport in Mingaladon, convinced that dozens of the planes were buried unassembled in wooden crates at the end of the war in 1945.

Kobe Bryant's always so conservative with his views. So meek. Timid. "It's not a question of if we make the playoffs. We will," Bryant told Sports Illustrated. "And when we get there, I have no fear of anyone - Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Denver … whoever. I have zero nervousness about that. " He didn't mention the Clippers, but that's another story for another day. The most repetitive, boring question of the Lakers' season was raised again Thursday: Was their victory Wednesday the start of a trend or a momentary burst before a relapse into the same old stuff?

SACRAMENTO - State lawmakers voiced doubts Tuesday that the Brown administration's proposal to regulate hydraulic fracturing is tough enough to protect public health and safety - and questioned whether the state's oil regulators could be trusted to enforce it. State senators convened a joint legislative hearing to review the draft regulations, which represent California's first attempt to govern the controversial drilling process known as "fracking....